caléevscauseWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: calée is a adjective, cause is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“calée” is an adjective and “cause” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,384
“calée” frequency rank
#332
“cause” frequency rank
48716
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature calée cause
Definition Féminin singulier de calé. Ce qui fait qu’une chose est ou s’opère.

Where the eye mixes calée and cause

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
calée
5 ch
cause

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: calée is \ka.le\ while cause is \koz\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48716, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

calée is recorded at frequency rank #48,384, classified as anadj, pronounced \ka.le\. cause is at rank #332, tagged as anoun, pronounced \koz\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 48716, this pair ranks #176,603 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of calée vs cause

Shared letters: ace. Private to "calée": . Private to "cause": su.

"calée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "cause" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • causeacuse · casue · caues · ccause · cuase

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "calée" and "cause" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "calée" is an adjective and "cause" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "calée" or "cause"?
"cause" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #332 in our French list, against #48,384 for "calée". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "calée" and "cause". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "calée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cause" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #176,603 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "calée" and "cause" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cakes vs calée". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list